Feeder from Greenock to Liverpool is more reliable than ever

Gillian Johnson - sales manager at Clydeport - has made it her ambition tochallenge the status quo of domestic and international shipping movements in order to “shake-up” operations for the greater good. Here Gillian tells us what she’s most looking forward to at the Glasgow Gateway event in her home city on Thursday 28 September 2017.

In two days’ time the team from Peel Ports Clydeport will welcome a delegation of 100 key industry stakeholders to the Science Centre in Glasgow to discuss both the challenges and opportunities ahead for our industry.

I personally am anticipating a lively discussion on feeder services and how port operators can work more collaboratively with shipping lines for the health of import and export movement both domestically and internationally.

Specifically, I am keen to hear from Rachel Cheng of BG Freight Line who has been integral to the successful transformation of the scheduling of the feeder services which now run every Friday from our port in Greenock to our Liverpool and potentially our L2 deep sea container terminal in North West England.

In March this year, following a full review of this service, BG Freight changed its scheduling to connect with many deep and short sea services ex Liverpool. This includes ACL’s transatlantic timetables, Saint Lawrence Container Services on MSC, Hapag and OOCL, and also many short sea services including MacAndrews Portugese, Seago, WEC Lines and Borchard. The decision was made to enhance Greenock’s ability to move Scottish exports by sea, in time to catch the global deep and short sea connections via Liverpool.

Similarly, the new regime also enhanced Greenock’s flexibility to move empty containers around more freely around the UK and Irish Sea hubs, This offers shippers, importers and carriers more opportunities with box re-positioning which contributes to cost savings across the board.

BG Freight Line currently operates a fixed sailing line to 29 ports and terminals, but for me the beauty of working with them is that they are willing to flex their offering to suit those who use them.

BG Freight’s financial backing, as part of the Peel Ports Group, also means that its customers can rest assured that they are working with an established and reliable business partner.

Only a few months ago, I blogged about new global shipping alliance schedules and how moving away from the norm is actually a good thing. By working together to make better use of our own tools we have already saved customers time and money.

I am very much looking forward to hearing Rachel talk about how the new scheduling has benefited all of us.

To find out more information about the current services we off at Clydeport visit HERE.